MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices rose as a rebound in global demand was widely expected and a slow recovery for the US Gulf Coast export and refining hub from the hurricane earlier this week looked set to deplete stocks further, reported Reuters.
Brent crude futures were up 39 cents, or 0.5%, to USD73.42 a barrel at 1231 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 21 cents or 0.3% at USD70.20 a barrel. Both benchmark oil contracts were largely steady for the week.
About 1.7 million barrels per day of oil production remains shut in the US Gulf of Mexico, with damage to heliports and fuel depots slowing the return of crews to offshore platforms, sources told Reuters.
"The prolonged US Gulf production and Louisiana refining capacity outages, which are bound to carve a bigger hole in the already diminished US oil stockpiles, as well as data showing continued strong domestic fuel demand recovery are supportive factors," said Vandana Hari, energy analyst at Vanda Insights.
Some analysts see room for further price gains amid tightening crude supplies and signs of recovering demand after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, stuck to a plan to add 400,00 barrels per day (bpd) to the market over the next few months.
The United States welcomed the move and pledged to press the exporter club to do more to support economic recovery by unleashing production.
As MRC wrote previously, in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.
We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
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